Long history of performing

As the College’s production of Matilda approaches, it is interesting to note that the College held its very first concert in 1907 and, from all accounts, the concert was of high quality. From then until now, the College has always produced high quality performances with excellent talent available for its productions.

1907 — The concerts

The first concert held for the College was in September 1896 at the Athenaeum Hall, to raise money to help build the Convent and school. The idea of a fundraising concert then became an annual event and the one that followed in 1897 was a grand affair. The evening began with a performance by the Lilydale Brass Band after which there was entertainment from the students, including a cantata called ‘The White Garland’ and a comedic play entitled ‘My Aunt’s Heiress’.

Over the years that followed, the concerts were hailed for the quality and variety of talent displayed by the students and they were always well patronised by the community. The 1900 concert, for example, was proclaimed a “gigantic success” by the Lilydale Express newspaper, which added that “the attendance was large and the children excelled themselves”.

For the 1907 concert, the same newspaper extolled the fact that “the programme was rendered entirely by the Convent pupils, and the excellence with which each of the items was presented, proved clearly that beside the other high branches of education in the Convent school curriculum, the study of Music, both in theory and practice, is given especial care and attention”.